If You Are a Successful Leader this Warning is for you: Dismantle Your Echo Chamber Now!

It may come as a surprise to you, but the hardest people for me to coach are successful leaders. Even though they enter my coaching program knowing the chaotic post-pandemic work environment mandates they change their approach to leadership, they, like all humans, are resistant to change.

In fact, successful leaders are more resistant to change than most people.? Why? Because, based on their success, they’ve developed a mindset that resists information that doesn’t fit their preconceived ideas about what they should do and how they should behave.

To protect this mindset from being challenged, leaders often construct an Echo Chamber, a barrier that only allows information aligning with, supporting and reinforcing their beliefs and ideas to be heard.

With this barrier in place, leaders only allow people who are totally supportive of their ideas and actions into their Echo Chamber. In turn, those privileged with access to the leader's Echo Chamber act as information filters, compromising information presented to the leader by putting a positive spin on it or omitting negative information. With these filters in place, the leader doesn’t hear information challenging their leadership capabilities, the status quo or the negative impact their decisions or behavior have on organizational performance.

Because their Echo Chamber prevents them from having a diversity of perspectives and accurate information, leaders make decisions based solely on their own past experiences and the constant repeating of their ideas by those select few in their Echo Chamber, without considering alternative solutions. This ill-informed decision-making process discourages creativity, innovation and risk-taking.? This leads to missed opportunities and, ultimately, cripples the organization's ability to adapt and compete in the post-pandemic economy.

The immense negative impact of their Echo Chamber requires the leader to understand what they have to do to dismantle it. Here are the three tools I recommend leaders in my coaching program use to take apart their Echo Chamber:

1. Increase self-awareness.

The more self-aware a leader is, the better they understand their motivations, see their strengths and weaknesses and manage their emotions. This ability to self-manage enables a leader to control their negative behavior and make better decisions.

An integral part of increasing self-awareness?is for a leader?to realize they have "blind spots," - the weaknesses or biases they don’t know exist- that, when triggered by the words or actions of others, dictate how they act, react, decide and behave. Examples of prevalent blind spots among leaders are?affinity bias ?(leaders favor, associate with and hire people similar to them),?confirmation bias ?(leaders look for information confirming their pre-existing beliefs), an inflated ego and fear of failing.

Leaders are susceptible to being manipulated by those who see, and use, the leader’s blind spots to their advantage, which cause the leader to make bad decisions or engage in destructive behavior. Since they're deeply embedded in a leader’s personality, blind spots cannot be eliminated. However, by being aware of their blind spots, leaders can mitigate their negative impact.

2. Eliminate the sycophants and manipulators.

Commonly known as a “suck-up” (or worse), a?sycophant ?is a self-promoter. They excessively flatter, praise and parrot the leader’s opinions, agreeing with everything the leader says and does. Sycophants seek the leader’s approval and attention for their personal benefit, such as a promotion.

Manipulators have built-in radar, allowing them to find a leader’s blind spots. They then use those blind spots to achieve their interests, at the expense of the leader and the organization, while convincing the leader they have their best interests at heart.

While the sycophant’s tactics are often easy to spot, the manipulator’s tactics are more subtle: they influence the leader by presenting information in a way that confirms the leader’s preconceptions or discredits opposing views or ideas.

By being aware of their tactics, a leader can detect manipulators and sycophants, and avoid their impact,

3. Solicit and encourage feedback.

A primary limitation of self-awareness is the leader’s inability to objectively evaluate their decisions, behaviors and actions.

To maximize the benefits of self-awareness, a leader needs to actively solicit external information, feedback and guidance. To be most beneficial, this should come from a support group comprised of colleagues, team members, coaches, mentors and advisors, who care enough to provide the leader with diverse perspectives, make them aware of their blind spots and challenge them to think outside their comfort zone.

To receive this valuable support, a leader must create a psychologically safe environment, where their support group can give the leader candid, constructive feedback, express ideas and dissenting opinions without fear of retribution or humiliation.

Creating this psychologically safe environment requires the leader to:

1.??? Communicate to everyone in the organization that they are serious about improving their leadership style and decision-making and need everyone’s input to make that possible.

2.??? Be perpetually curious and be an empathetic listener, continuously soliciting feedback, ideas and opinions from their support group and others on their team and in their organization.

3.??? At least quarterly, ask their support group these questions: How am I doing? What should I stop doing? And What should I start doing?

4.??? Annually conduct an anonymous, 360-degree survey among the organization’s stakeholders to determine how the leader’s decisions and behavior are perceived.

5.??? Spend time reflecting on the feedback and ideas offered by their support group to determine what changes they agree with and are feasible.

6.??? Create action plans based on this valuable information to improve their leadership skill set.

7.??? And, finally, publicly thank everyone who gave candid, constructive feedback, even if is not going to be implemented. And also explain why some feedback won't be implemented.

Within their Echo Chamber, leaders are unapproachable, unaware of their blind spots, subject to manipulation and unable to recognize and break their destructive patterns of decision-making and behavior, which cause negative consequences for themselves, their team and their organization.

This is why the value of leaders dismantling their Echo Chamber cannot be overstated.

If you would like more information about how to dismantle your echo chamber, contact me at [email protected] . ?

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